I use rubber bands, cheap ones. Here is how I do it.Rubber Bands are size 1174 rubber bands per frame.Two rubber bands side to side, one near the top of the frame, one near the bottom.Two rubber bands from top of frame to bottom of frame. These rubber bands need to be doubled up. They are to long to go around the frame without being doubled up. I usually form a v shape with the top/bottom rubber bands by moving the bottom about a third of the way into the frame. Then on top I take one side of the band and put it as far to the left top as possible. The other side of the band I move on top toward the center. The rubber band on the right. I do the same thing basically. This forms two v shapes with the rubber bands that run to bottom.

I use cheap rubber bands because they break down easily. If you look at them in the hive a week later you will see the rubber bands craked and falling apart. If the bees haven't removed them. You can remove them.

Sincerely,Brendhan

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Thanks, Brendhan. I appreciate it that you know I need all the help I can get!! I do have some of those huge rubber bands - the bees won't mind if they are pink, yellow, red and orange, will they?

I don't have to be at work until 10 this morning, so in spite of the cool morning I am going to address this a little before I go. I also will put a frame of drawn comb in, as Michael recommended. I usually work the bees with gloves, but the rubber band maneuvers sound like a gloveless activity - this will be an adventure.

Cross your fingers, everyone!

Linda T

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http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

If you smoke the bees and it stays cool, you should not need the gloves.

I understand the bees went with comb from one frame to another.

So remove just the frames you have to to work on at that moment. Leave the rest in the box. Brush the bees off the frames you are working on. Fix the frames and replace them and then go to the next frames and repeat. Just like the shampoo bottle lather rinse repeat.

Sincerely,Brendhan

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The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

Miracle of miracles, my girls are so SMART - here's the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey says:

Yesterday afternoon, you'll remember, I re-opened the messy hive and cut the comb that was connecting the frames and moved it onto the bottom bar of one frame. I didn't have rubber bands nor did I address the entire box, but I did try to send the message to the bees that they were supposed to color inside the lines.

Today armed with multicolor rubber bands, my smoker and gloveless on my right hand, I opened up my small cell messy hive. NO FRAMES were connected with bridging comb and only two were still messy - and they only had two little protusions hanging out and off the bottom of the frame. I cut those, but didn't need to "tie" in any cut comb nor did I destroy more than a tablespoon size piece of the comb. Even the combs that yesterday were overlayered with two pieces of comb, one on top of the other, now were flawless.

Just for insurance, I opened the non-messy hive and replaced a central frame with a full frame of comb from my last year's hive (the weak one) and I put the starter strip frame in the weak hive to give them something to do now that their numbers have tripled or quadrupled since I opened the hive the first time this spring.

Two other nice things:

1. I've never worked gloveless before and it was wonderful. I started out with a glove only on my left hand and by the time I was through, I had on no gloves. I didn't get stung which might be a function of how cold it is in Atlanta today, but I loved feeling their little bodies brush against me as I worked. I also never realized how warm the hive feels - I know that they keep it 90 something degrees, but with gloves and a bee suit, I've never really felt that before. :shock:

2. The Varroa count 24 hour that I did on the weak hive and also on the new hive that isn't messy only showed up 2 mites on each hive.Whoo hoo! :-D :-D :-D

Thank you, everyone, for all the help and suggestions. I love the resourcefulness of the people on this forum and the willingness and generosity you all show when you share your wisdom.

Linda T, a very happy beekeeper in Atlanta

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Linda, that made me very happy when I read your post on how things have been corrected and the comb building cleaned up by your bees. See, they know what they have to do, they just sometimes get a little confused about how things should be done I guess. Yeah!!!!

I don't think that I will ever use gloves again. When I first started keeping bees I always wore gloves. They are clumbsy and I think that I no doubt had crushed bees. You cannot feel the bees very well, if at all, when wearing heavy leather gloves. I still have the gloves around, in case there may be maneuveurs where I might need them. But for the most part, say no to gloves.

I think that you would have more chance of being stung when wearing gloves than without because of the inadvertent death of bees by squishing. Like you noticed, Linda, you can feel the bees, long before you cause harm. It is really kind of a pleasing feeling that you know you have brushed by a wing, the whispy feeling on your finger of their wing, and that you have not harmed any bee. There is no alarm pheromone that has been activated from a bee feeling its life is in danger, hence no sting everted into your flesh. (most times) LOLL. Have the most wonderful day, Cindi

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I would keep them handy. For normal beekeeping you may not need them, but for a hot hive or a cut out, you may find them necessary. As someone who used to work construction in -10 F, I don't find gloves that clumsy to work in. I don't do it regularly, because it is a bit awkward, but I have caught and marked a queen with gloves on.

I always have an extra veil, gloves and velcro straps for tying down sleeves and pants legs on habd for taking visitors into the hive. You never know when showing someone the inards of a hive will hatch a new beekeeper.

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I can't stand the thought of a hot hive. I had one, it was a swarm that I had caught in my first year of beekeeping and it really was not a nice place to go. Thank goodness it swarmed, I requeened and the bees certainly became nicer people in no time at all.

If any of my hives become hot, I will do my best effort to get them to be nice again. Best of this beautiful day, and good health to boot. Cindi

I

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I went back into the messy hive today to see how they were doing. There was only a tiny bit of comb to cut out. On the inner three frames the mess was still being repaired, but no combs were touching the next frame. On the frames on the edges, the combs were being built straight down in two dips - one on either end of the frame, extending down about 4 inches and about 4- 5 inches wide in length along the top of the frame.

I wondered - and I realize only the bees truly know the answer - my other nuc-started hive is in an old deep box and has a repainted old box for their medium box with starter strips and the frames are old frames with new SC starter strips. Those bees are doing fine with the starter strips and comb building.

The hive that made a mess has a new medium box with new frames and new starter strips - could that be why they made a mess? Maybe they needed it to smell different - more old or honey like? Maybe I should have sprayed it with something.

Linda T wondering about the bees as always....in Atlanta

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http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You never can tell with bees" - Winnie the Pooh

Sometimes one hive does well at comb building and another does not. I think it's partly genetics. It's also how they get started. If they get started wrong it's hard to get it back to right. If they get started right, it's hard to screw them up. :)

Linda, all I can say is that is very, very interesting eh? Have a wonderful day, don't try to figure things out. LOLL. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service